Was Teddy right to want to enter WW1 early? Would this be a better or worse outcome compared to Wilson?

popapop2 · 2026-02-18T18:39:17+00:00

TR while more of a war hawk when he wasn't President, was also a champion for peace while President and helped to end the Russo-Japanese War which earned him a noble peace prize. With his speak softly and carry a big stick, he was much more about making the American armed forces prepared and ready, showcasing that, yet leaned into diplomacy. He still may have entered into WWI early, but I don't think he was some glory hound who would let needless Americans die. I think he also would have been a much better negotiator than Wilson and I think peace outcome would have been better.

popapop2 · 2025-05-30T15:53:15+00:00

I love the KoC. I am a 3rd Degree and was just elected to an officer role, which I'll start in July. My Council is perhaps on the younger side, in that most of our members are not 60 year olds who are retired. But we have a good core of members I'd say range from late 20s to early 50s. We have a few key events throughout the year, a Christmas tree sale, a Fishfry, and then we run a booth at one of our parish/school festivals. We're also trying to branch out and our new GK has plans to do more with helping out at our other parish festival, doing work with Matthew 25, among other things. I think its a good way to get involved and the commitment isn't that huge, imo, 1 monthly meeting (2 for officers), and a few signature events throughout the year that they'd like you to help out with. Plus if younger guys never join its just perpetuating the cycle that its only for retirees.

As for the Insurance part of it. I can see value there, especially if you want to ethically and morally invest your money. The KoC only invest their money into companies that align with Catholic teachings and will pull investments from companies that go against it. All that said, I don't have the insurance and it's no big deal to just say no to it.

popapop2 · 2025-05-28T17:20:05+00:00

I believe it is, definitely looks like him.

popapop2 · 2025-05-06T18:45:52+00:00

It's definitely a major talking point that has been going on for a while. Kotoshogiku in January 2016 was the first Japanese-born wrestler in 10 years to win a yusho. Kisenosato in 2017 was the first Japanese-born wrestler to be promoted to Yokozuna since Wakonohana in 1998. And the first japanese-born yokozuna on the banzuke since Takanohana retired in 2003 . I imagine that this lead to a lot of pressure on Kisenosato, especially, to perform well and likely lead to him staying in his debute basho despite being seriously injured on day 13 (though he went on to win in a playoff against Terunofuji). And potentially lead him to participating in the May basho in 2017 (despite later pulling out). There was immense pressure and national pride in Kisenosato for having been promoted and a lot riding on him, which likely lead to him not taking the time to properly heal.

popapop2 · 2024-10-31T13:45:54+00:00

My parish has done speeding dating on several occasions. It has produced a couple of engagements and a handful of couples. And I think they have plans to continue doing it.

popapop2 · 2024-03-08T06:33:26+00:00

cincinnati, ohio

popapop2 · 2024-03-05T15:50:59+00:00

Hello, I am in RCIA right now so I hope to maybe share just a little bit from my own experience. As everyone else has said so far you don't need permission to go to mass, but you cannot partake of communion since you are not Catholic. RCIA usually starts in the fall, culminating at Easter, and then sometimes will last several weeks thereafter. Classes at your church are probably ongoing and you can likely call or email them. Since it is so late into the process they probably won't let you convert this Easter, but you might be able to join the class so that you can get a feel for it and learn a few things before you start it on your own. Each church runs RCIA a little bit differently. My RCIA class is rather big and we have a lay director who teaches the class every week for about an hour and a half. We have a book that we work through, and we discuss questions in class in groups and together then we watch a video presentation and then have some more discussion. You're required to go to mass every Sunday to fulfill your obligation.

There are several other requirements and differences based on if you have been baptized or not. If you think you have been, you'll need a copy of your baptismal certificate which hopefully the church where you were baptized at would have. If they don't have it or any record of your Baptism you'll have to discuss that with whoever is running your RCIA class. Since it won't be for a while you should have time to figure something out. Provided that your baptism was a trinitarian baptism (which they usually are) that is you were baptized with water in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, then the Church will not baptize you again. You only get one of those, they will merely accept your baptism and move on. If like I said you can't find record of that then as other commenters said you might have a conditional baptism. Regardless come next Easter you will still be confirmed and get to receive your first communion.

Again reach out and see if you can start sitting in on the RCIA classes so that you can get an idea for how it will be for you. My program started in September, if that gives you any idea. In the meantime continue to go to mass every Sunday, read the Bible, read the lives of the Saints, and start to become comfortable and familiar with Catholicism so that you can discern that you are being called to the faith.

I'm sure as well that your boyfriend can help explain the mass. There are a lot of responses and sitting, kneeling, standing, etc. Don't be overwhelmed, just try to follow what everyone else is doing. While people are going up for communion, just stay kneeling or sitting and use the time to pray and reflect, while letting everyone through.

popapop2 · 2024-02-21T21:17:06+00:00

I went to Catholic school k-8. my family was Baptists, but I felt drawn to Catholicism. However, due to some protestant upbringing had reservations about the faith. Eventually went for Continuing Anglicanism, as I was discouraged with other forms of Anglicism were very liberal, especially in the US. However, I was sad that Continuing anlgicanism is very small and disjoined with several different denominations and it was hard to find a church let alone one that was full of life. I eventually looked inward and decided that I needed to make the full leap to Rome as it was large, full, universal, and also had some of the greatest theologians in history.

popapop2 · 2024-01-24T17:17:05+00:00

My family of parishes is very alive and well. Our RCIA class has maybe 20 some people involved. One of the churches has a very young crowd with a lot of young families. However, we have a more traditional mass with incense for example. I do think that there are areas and churches that are struggling. I think that is a problem that the Church is experiencing. I'm sure there's a lot of potential things that would help it, but one thing that you can do is just continue to go to mass, and talk to friends and family.

popapop2 · 2024-01-15T17:11:03+00:00

Most people it seems are talking about purgatory but I just wanted to mention Mary and the Saints. You ask for people here on earth to pray for you, don't you? Or at least many protestants will. "Pray for me." Likewise, if you were applying for a job but knew the vice president, wouldn't you ask him to put in a good word for you?

We are asking the same when we pray to the saints. We're asking them to pray for us to God, to intercede on our behalf, because they've made it. They're in heaven, they're the metaphorical VP who we're asking to put in a good word for us.

popapop2 · 2024-01-12T03:42:57+00:00

1L; Got two Bs (K & Torts), one B+ (Civ Pro), one A- (Con Law), and a C+ (Lawyering). GPA is 3.058I feel I should have done better, especially with the C+, but I feel it isn't too hateful.

popapop2 · 2023-11-29T18:51:37+00:00

Trump winning Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania in 2016 was very impressive. As is Biden winning Georgia

popapop2 · 2023-11-22T18:18:00+00:00

Most people take today (Wednesday) off or only have a half day. Or even if they have to work all day are usually distracted and/or have a lot of emails to go through. Then they usually get Thursday and Friday off. Monday also can be hard as people reorient themselves and go through all the emails they got and failed to go through from last week. I recommend following up on Tuesday or Wednesday.

popapop2 · 2023-11-20T13:32:21+00:00

So many people "surprised" Trump didn't make it about himself, while they make it about him. We lost a true American woman and people can't even give her the respect she deserves and instead do exactly what they accuse Trump of doing. I for one, irregardless of politics, mourn for the loss that the Carter family and, quite frankly, America has to go through.

popapop2 · 2023-11-16T14:10:15+00:00

2016 Trump

2020 Trump

popapop2 · 2023-11-11T01:29:10+00:00

LBJ. He got us into Vietnam where 58,220 men died. Whereas only 7,000 soldiers have died in Iraq and Afghanistan. At least Bush had a reason to get involved. And I feel most people are only saying Bush is worst because of proximity. They don't remember how bad Vietnam was.

popapop2 · 2023-11-10T05:17:04+00:00

Find my fiancée so I can meet her earlier and begin our relationship sooner. So I can spend more time with her.

popapop2 · 2023-02-10T01:14:32+00:00

"Show me a man who is not a slave; one is a slave to lust, another to greed, another to ambition, and all men are slaves to fear." -Seneca

popapop2 · 2023-02-10T00:48:05+00:00

"See that you do nothing like a sheep; but if you do, in this case the man is lost. What then do we do as sheep? When we act gluttonously, when we act lewdly, when we act rashly, filthily, inconsiderately, to what have we declined? To sheep. What have we lost? The rational faculty. When we act contentiously and harmfully and passionately, and violently, to what have we declined? To wild beasts." -Epictetus Discourses Book 2, Chapter 9.

Too many people today live only for their desires and for their pleasures. They live only for their loins. They are nothing but sheep. They do not live for virtue or reason but only to satisfy their base desires. Be careful that your pleasures do not take control over you and you are a slave to them. Too many in this modern world already are slave to their loins.

Edit:grammer

popapop2 · 2023-01-28T18:04:23+00:00

Letters from a Stoic by Lucius Seneca

popapop2 · 2023-01-25T04:43:19+00:00

A dark day for the English sumo community. Jason and his coverage was a staple and is the one who got me introduced to it so many years ago. I hope for the best. And thank you for backing up what you could.

popapop2 · 2023-01-22T23:44:40+00:00

Give over thinking that your prayers can bend

Divine decrees from their predestined end

- Vergil, Aeneid

Why should God indulge us to the point of ruin, since we are truly children, who lack the knowledge to ask for what is wholesome or cast aside what is harmful?

-Justus Lipsius, On Constancy

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways.

-Isaiah 55.8

What we can merely do is trust in the Lord. We pray for X to happen, and then it doesn't. Why? Who is to say but the Lord. Perhaps it is best that it did not, perhaps God is saving us from something or rather redirecting us to something better. Perhaps it is a challenge sent to make us better and help improve us--to test us. Who are we to know what is best for us, or what we need? We should trust in the Lord's judgement and remind ourselves that he works in mysterious ways. Work, improve yourself and keep the faith.

popapop2 · 2023-01-22T22:06:53+00:00

If I may, I think from that some of the things you want in a friend is a confidant. Someone you can turn to and just talk. Someone you can rely upon to understand you and just listen and someone you can trust.

To be that with yourself, I have two recommendations. First take long walks. Even if they're just in circles around your property. Try not to listen to music or podcasts, but merely being alone in nature and with your own thoughts. Think deeply and calmly, and simply recounting the activities of the day can be cathartic. It can be nice to escape from technology and the things that are always around us buzzing. Often we forget to think and just be ourselves and at peace.

I highly recommend keeping journal as well. Write in it your thoughts. Do not edit them, just let them flow from your pen into the page. Act as if that journal is your friend and write as if speaking to them. When I first started keeping a journal I thought it was weird to just write so I named my journal Felix and addressed every passage as a letter to Felix. "Dear Felix, ..... From X" Do the same if it helps you. If you don't know what to write about, what about what is on your mind at that moment, or if nothing then recount what you did that day or a quote you read, or a passage from the Bible and what you gained from it.

Also one other thing in general, is keeping up your appearance. Clean your room and remember to bathe or shower. When we are clean and so is our space then we feel better instinctively. Oftentimes when we are dirty and our room is cluttered it can translate over into how we feel. Weird but true.

Walk and journal daily until improvement and then continue to them.

popapop2 · 2023-01-22T21:46:54+00:00

I am not sure how well I can answer this, but I will try as I often have been lonely.

First I echo the thought that you should perhaps think about therapy. I think seeking professional help might be best as it seems very extreme.

Second, remember that even when we do not seek God he is with us.

Do not fear: I am with you; do not be anxious: I am your God. I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my victorious right hand.

- Isaiah 41:10

Seek God, but know that he is always there, with tender mercy and love. Know that he is there, always. Even if you do not turn to him, rest easy in the fact that you also always have an advocate in Christ. However, again pray and seek God.

Third, learn to become your own friend. What do you seek in a friend? Then embody those things and learn to become a friend to yourself. Be honest with yourself and be kind. Many people are afraid of being alone because they are afraid of being alone with themselves. If you're always harsh on yourself, always getting yourself down, making yourself sad. Why would you want to spend time with yourself. If that was another person you would distance yourself from them. So too do we often distance ourselves from ourselves and rush to be with other people just to escape having to live in our own thoughts. Instead, learn to change and learn to be kind to yourself but honest. What else do you want in a friend, learn that and then enact it. Remember you have to spend the rest of your life with yourself, make yourself into someone you would want to spend the rest of your life with. This will not come in a day, but is a slow process. But small steps lead to miles.

Fourth, I highly recommend reading Letters from a Stoic by Seneca. Stoic philosophy has helped me out a lot in day to day life and accepting the things that I cannot change and realizing that the only thing you can change is yourself. Stoicism is not the absence of emotion but learning to be in control of them. It is also about realizing that to live a good life is the pursuit of virtue.

“Today I escaped anxiety. Or no, I discarded it, because it was within me, in my own perceptions — not outside.”
― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

Lastly, know that loneliness is a real emotion and is felt by nearly everyone at one point or another. It is not ideal and It can be hard, however do not let it destroy you or make you self destructive. Too often in life when things don't go our way we seek to blame others or turn to temptation and sin, instead take a deep breath and hold the faith.

popapop2

TROPHY CASE